The supply issues that Apple has had to face with the new Retina iPad mini have been well documented over the past few weeks. It was said that LCD burn-in issues with the Retina display panels were causing delay in shipments, which resulted in a gap in the demand and supply of Apple’s latest tablet. Recently it was reported that various production bottlenecks have been taken care of, and while an improvement has been seen in the shipment times of Wi-Fi only Retina iPad mini models, it appears that the cellular variants are still playing hard to get.
A couple of weeks back it was reported that almost all of the major U.S. carriers had the cellular variants of Apple’s new tablet backordered. Recent checks indicate that Verizon’s Retina iPad mini variant is backordered until December 16th, whereas AT&T is showing shipping estimates between 21-28 days after the order is placed. T-Mobile’s product page for the Retina iPad mini lists the tablet out of stock, but assures customers that it will be available for shipment soon. On the other hand, shipping estimates of the cellular models have nominally improved on Apple’s online store, some Apple Retail Stores in the U.S. also have these variants in stock so customers are able to just walk-in and pick up one. Apple seems to be holding its Retina iPad mini inventory close to its chest, as per recent analyst predictions, it still have a limited amount of inventory to work with. Production and supply of the tablet is expected to improve in the first quarter of 2014.
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